be his mother, was hideously
swollen and disfigured. A man, crouching down with his head between his
hands, endeavoured to hide the seamed and knotted mass of protruding
blue flesh, which had once been a human face. The forms of leprosy,
elephantiasis, and other kindred diseases, which I have seen in the
East, and in tropical countries, are not nearly so horrible. For these
unfortunates there was no hope. Some years, more or less, of a life
which is worse than death, was all to which they could look forward. No
cure has yet been discovered for this terrible disease. There are two
hospitals in Bergen, one of which contains about five hundred patients;
while the other, which has recently been erected for the reception of
cases in the earlier stages, who may be subjected to experimental
courses of treatment, has already one hundred. This form of leprosy is
supposed to be produced partly by an exclusive diet of salt fish, and
partly by want of personal cleanliness. The latter is the most probable
cause, and one does not wonder at the result, after he has had a little
experience of Norwegian filth. It is the awful curse which falls upon
such beastly habits of life. I wish the Norwegians could be made
Mussulmen for awhile, for the sake of learning that cleanliness is not
only next to godliness, but a necessary part of it. I doubt the
existence of filthy Christians, and have always believed that St. Jerome
was atrociously slandered by the Italian painters. But is there no
responsibility resting upon the clergymen of the country, who have so
much influence over their flocks, and who are themselves clean and
proper persons?

Bergen is also, as I was informed, terribly scourged by venereal
diseases. Certainly, I do not remember a place, where there are so few
men--tall, strong, and well-made as the people generally are--without
some visible mark of disease or deformity. A physician of the city has
recently endeavoured to cure syphilis in its secondary stage, by means
of inoculation, having first tried the experiment upon himself; and
there is now a hospital where this form of treatment is practiced upon
two or three hundred patients, with the greatest success, as another
physician informed me. I intended to have visited it, as well as the
hospital for lepers; but the sight of a few cases, around the door of
the latter establishment, so sickened me, that I had no courage to
undertake the task.

Let me leave these disagreeable th